Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Osombie is a big what if! When Seal Team IV went into kill Bin Laden, they had to fight their way through the undead just to find Bin Laden dead ... or so it seems. Bin Laden wakes up as an undead ghoul while being flown out. The helicopter crashes in the Arabic Sea and Bin Laden makes his way back to his homeland while laying waste to everyone in sight. While believing that he is dead; a group of special ops in Afghanistan come across a woman named Dusty (Eve Mauro) who is searching for her brother Derek (Jasen Wade). Derek believes that the cover up is all a lie and soon the truth comes out.

I found the film to be somewhat entertaining; it feels as if this film won't find it's real target audience because of what the film is. The film is CGI heavy and could have used a lot more blood; even though the effects didn't look that bad. Whenever the female soldier in the group is hacking through zombies with a sword, you'd expect her to be somewhat covered in blood. The acting was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. I was mainly expecting something along the lines of a bad Sci-Fi channel movie. I give Osombie a 3/5.

Video: 4.5/5

British studio Signature Entertainment has given Osombie a nice 1080/50i presentation. The film looks like it was shot with a basic HD camera. Quality is pretty good, however there seems to be a shot or two of bad interlacing. Not entirely sure what that is all about. Detail is nice and crisp. Even with the visual effects added into the image at times, it doesn't bring the quality down. I give the video source 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Signature Entertainment has given the film two audio options, PCM stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1. While I viewed the film in DTS-HD MA, it sounded it pretty great. Then, I went back through the film and viewed it in the PCM and it blows the DTS-HD MA out of the water. It's loud and clear with the stereo track. You can't go wrong with it. 5/5.

Extras: 0/5

No extras on the disc.

Overall: 3/5

The disc is region free, however, a 1080/50i presentation kills it. I do not know how the U.S. disc compares this release. I know when the film came out last year on Blu-ray here in the States, it was going for $13; I managed to score this British release for $3 used. I would say don't pay more than $10 for it. I give this release a 3/5.

I will say this, Chris Hemsworth has came a long way from his earlier films in comparison to how great his role is as Thor. I managed to get this Blu-ray off of Grooves Inc for $10 and boy was I in for a surprise. Sean Bean plays Kubic, a man who has traveled from England to Chicago to see his imprisoned brother (also Sean Bean). His brother informed him that he threw his heist money out the window while being chased by the police.

The suitcase full of money lands on Sam's (Hemsworth) car. Sam, in anger, throws the suitcase to reveal money sticking out of it. He takes it home to his wife and they believe it to a blessing from God, until Kubic comes knocking at their door. The couple blew through $75,000 out of the $625,000. While visiting his brother in prison, Kubic is told to ignore it and the money they spent is fine. Kubic ignores his brother's plea and wants all of the money back. Kubic then puts the couple into a journey of hell trying to get the cash back.

For 110 minutes, I felt that the film dragged on and on at times. If twenty minutes would have been cut, I might have enjoyed it more. Obviously, with how it ends, sets it up for a sequel that we will never get. I've seen better performances from Sean Bean and Chris Hemsworth doesn't remotely look like how he does in Thor in this movie. He's all babyface and no muscle. I give Ca$h 2.5/5.

Video: 4/5

This looks like it was shot with a basic 1080p camera judging from how looks in movement. A lot of early HD shot films have this speed problem where it moves a bit faster than it should. The video looks a bit soft at times, but, it is pretty detailed. It's not perfect, but, I can award it 4/5 for the video.

Audio: 5/5

Ascot Elite gives us two audio tracks on the disc, English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks. The English audio fares better than the video presentation. Hearing the guns lock whenever Kubic puts the clip into the gun sounds nice and crystal clear. Hearing the sound of a plane landing as Kubic comes to Chicago in the opening sounds nice and loud. I have no complaints regarding the audio tracks. 5/5.

Extras: 1/5

Not much in terms of extras. We have an English and German trailer for Cash. Then we have German dubbed trailers for What Doesn't Kill You aka Boston Streets; Cargo; and Nothing But the Truth. And English language trailers with German subtitles for a British film called the Firm and a movie starring Melissa George called Triangle. Quality on all these trailers all look like poorly ripped Youtube videos. It reminds of all the trailers on the Blu-ray for Evil Angel. I give the bonus 1/5.

Overall: 3/5

I went into Cash with high hopes. I was somewhat let down. I don't think it was that bad, nor that great. It all felt that Sean Bean dialed it in and Chris Hemsworth was a new and upcoming actor who hadn't yet landed the role as the God of Thunder. Even Bean's performance in the remake of the Hitcher was better; even in Silent Hill: Revelation 3D where he kept flipping back and forth from his English accent to his American accent. Maybe if you're looking to see it, I can recommend it for the $10 if you can play Region B discs. Will it get a replay in my book? Down the road, one day. 3/5.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was a turning point for the Godzilla series. This is where Godzilla changes from being the destroyer that he is to Earth's savior. After a meteorite crashes to Earth, a group of scientists go to investigate. At the same time, a princess is heading to Japan when her plane explodes during it's flight. Believing that the princess is dead, a mysterious prophet claiming to be from Venus looks exactly like the dead princess. The prophet claims that the monsters are going to be awoken and it all begins to hit the fan.

The meteorite turns out to be King Ghidorah and soon he begins laying waste to Japan. Rodan, Mothra (in larva form), and Godzilla gather. Mothra tries to stop Godzilla and Rodan from killing each other and begs them to stop and to save the world from the wrath of King Ghidorah. After the monsters ignore her pleas, Mothra goes to fight King Ghidorah by herself. Godzilla and Rodan sees Mothra's sacrifice to save the planet and soon the three unlikely monsters begin the battle for the Earth and duke it out against King Ghidorah.

I remember being six years old when I first saw this film, in 1996. I had recorded it off of the Disney channel along with Son of Godzilla. Yes, Disney channel back in the day would actually play Godzilla films. Would you see something like that now a days? No. You would get the crap you see on there today.

What I love about this film is how hysterical it gets when the monsters fight and the sarcasm that they have. You can tell that Rodan is laughing at Godzilla when Mothra is spraying him down and then Rodan shuts up as soon as he gets sprayed himself. This is a film where the suits look amazing and well done. I can't recommend this film enough, 5/5.

Video: 4.5/5

Ascot Elite presents the film in 1080p and uses the Toho remaster from 2008. How does the film fare in comparison to Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs Biollante? It's spectacular. It blows the HD remaster away for Destroy All Monsters. However, there's some scratches on the lens which they couldn't remove. The picture is pretty flawless for an almost fifty year old film. I give the visual presentation 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

We have two audio presentations of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster; Japanese and German DTS-HD MA 5.1. Both tracks sound glorious. Hearing Godzilla's roar and the other monsters roaring and fighting all sounds amazing. Both audio tracks sound great. All around 5/5.

Extras: 4.5/5

We have some great extras, however, most of them are PAL encoded which means it won't work in your Region 1 players unless your player is compatible. We have a 40 minute score version which is in HD. And we have a German commentary track; I have some issues with it. They claimed that Shusuke Kaneko liked Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster so much that he remade it as GMK. Unless I translated it wrong, I honestly don't believe that is correct. I know that Kaneko loved this film and made Shiro Sano and Chiharu Niiyama watch the film. Also, they claimed that the American title for the film was the literal Japanese translation for the film; Giant Monsters Decisive Battle.

We have an interview with Shusuke Kaneko, which is fine and good fun, but; we have scrolling German subtitles from the right side to the left side of the screen. It honestly hurt my eyes trying to read it as moved way too fast. And these subtitles are burned into the video itself. And finally, we have the trailer in Japanese and German. Basically, it's just German audio over the Japanese trailer. I do like the bonus material; however since it's all in German, it won't help all of you. 4.5/5.

Overall: 5/5

This Blu-ray is region free and is a cheaper alternative to the Japanese Blu-ray which costs about $80. I managed to get the German Blu-ray for $17 off of Grooves Inc. Like the Japanese Blu-ray, this German Blu-ray is not English friendly. However, if you've watched this film as many times as I have, you get used to watching the film despite the fact there's no English subtitles. Much like how i can watch the German Blu-ray Casshern and don't really need subtitles whenever it's playing in Japanese or German. This is classic Godzilla, remastered, and very stunning for an almost fifty year old film. I give this Blu-ray 5/5.

Plaguers is a film that I cannot figure out. I cannot tell if it's paying homage to space horror films of the 70's or 80's or if it's one big rip-off. A space shuttle returning to Earth gets a distress call from a nearby vessel. Once the crew goes on board, they find four somewhat attractive women and rescue them. All is not as it seems as they turn out to be space pirates. At the same time, the crew are carrying a deadly power source that is broken while fighting with the pirates. Now, the power source's fuel is turning people into blood thirsty monsters. Now the crew and pirates fight to make sure that the ship doesn't make it to Earth or else...

The monsters are not exactly zombies, but, some sort of monsters. Are re-animated corpses coming back from the dead? Yes. It felt more like Lamberto Bava's Demons set in space. It even has some effects shots that reminded me of Demons; like finger nails growing out and teeth popping out of the jaws, etc. I really like how the film wasn't that big on CGI with the exception of what was used for gun shots and bullet effects. I give the film 3/5.

Video: 3.5/5

Presented in 1080/50i, the disc is region free, however, you will need a Blu-ray player that can support this type of video format. Interlacing is seen in a few shots, but other than that; it's got a nice visual presentation. This was shot digitally, probably with an HD camera as opposed to RED. The color pallet is mostly grey as the backdrop of the sets since this is set on a spaceship, but, the green and red are strong whenever we see the Thanatos orb and the blood from the monsters. I give the video 3.5/5.

Audio: 3.5/5

We have two audio tracks on the disc, 5.1 DTS-HD MA English and German. The English audio seems to have some bad ADR work done on it. When one of the crewman starts yelling, clearly, he is yelling something quite different. I've noticed this several times throughout the film. The German dub does sync up somewhat nice to the video. However, if you do get this disc and you speak English, I doubt you'll turn over to the German dub. I give the audio element of Plaguers 3.5/5.

Extras: .5/5
The only extras on the disc are trailers for Pontypool and Delta Farce. Too bad there was nothing in terms of extras on the film itself. .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

I managed to buy this off a user who I have bought from in the past off of Blu-ray.com. It is region free, but the PAL menu and the film being encoded at 1080i makes it difficult for me to recommend it unless you have the capabilities to play this on you player. For what the film was, if you got time to kill, I can recommend it. 2.5/5.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

This marks the fourth review that I have done on the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk Till Dawn. I have reviewed this film in the individual release by Echo Bridge followed by the double feature which contained Texas Blood Money and then finally in the series release that had all four films crammed onto one disc. To get my views on the film, please visit my review of the double feature from 2011. How does the initial 2008 disc from Alliance (now Entertainment One) stack up in comparison?

Video: 3.5/5

I initially gave the video presentation on the Echo Bridge version 3.5/5. I am giving this version a 3.5/5 as well. The EB release was actually a remastered version produced sometime after or during this Canadian release. The visual presentation is opened up slightly from 1.85 to 1.78; but it's miniscule to worry about having an opened matted presentation since these two aspects are almost the same thing. The visual presentation on both releases of the film has been a debate for some time now; after watching both, I am leaning towards the Echo Bridge release.

I will be giving spoilers in these following descriptions of shots; when Jimmy is now a vampire, the blood on his white shirt in the Canadian release is almost orange. At the almost 1:23 into the film, Kate is thrown by Sex Machine; in this version, you can clearly make out the wires attached to Juliette Lewis. In the Echo Bridge version that's been remastered, wires were completely removed from the shot. Despite the somewhat orange skintones on people in the remaster, the color scheme seems more natural on blood and other things.

You might ponder why am I giving this the same score? The detail is still pretty strong in this transfer and that is a big pro for this. The biggest con on this transfer, and I assume this is why it was remastered, is that the print damage is all over the place. Another pro against the EB release is that the right side of the screen doesn't show any sort of distress which was noticeable after the gang leaves the stock room of junk for weapons. One other thing and this minor, the end credits look like it has finger prints visable throughout on the Canadian transfer. I give this transfer a 3.5/5 along with the remaster, it's all about that concept called the power of suggestion which I will leave for you to decide which version is best.

Audio: 5/5

Alliance (Entertainment One) has given this initial transfer a pretty powerful English DTS-HD MA 5.1 track along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 and French DTS-HD MA 5.1 and DD 5.1 tracks. I think they might have gone overboard on the audio tracks if you ask. To compare audio on both releases, I would give it to this disc. The sound has a more raw and gritty feel to it, whereas the DTS-HD MA 5.1 on the Echo Bridge sounds more subdued. The French dub sounds average in my opinion. I award the audio on this disc 5/5.

Extras: 0/5

Just like the Echo Bridge Blu-ray, this Canadian release has no extra features.

Overall: 3.5/5

As far as I know, this disc is out of print now. After the Echo Bridge Blu-ray came out, Alliance put out a combo pack and a steelbook and from what I read, those two releases contained the remastered version that Echo Bridge used. One of the big cons on the Echo Bridge Blu-ray is that English subtitles are rarely applied to releases and this one falls in that category. If you're a person who relies on subtitles to help you enjoy the film, this Canadian release has English subtitles. I give Alliance (Entertainment One) initial release a 3.5/5.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A group of kids decide to go into an abandoned bunker from World War II while they were supposed to go on a school field trip. Needless to say, something happened and everyone ends up dead. Except for one soul survivor, played by beautiful Thora Birch. While locked up in a hospital, a detective (Embeth Davidtz, Army of Darkness and Europa Report) is trying to help her to understand the situation in which the three others died.

I am going to go into spoiler territory because I need to. If you haven't seen The Hole, please skip this review or scroll down to Venom. I hate movies about characters who have this sort of mental disorder where it has to be about "ME". Take the film I reviewed not too long ago called Roman. Roman disgusted me to no end because I sat through that garbage. I felt that The Hole was going to be ok until we got to the twist and I was like; "NO!"

Thora Birch's character is revealed to be this stalker type character who is obsessing over Desmond Harrington's character in the film. She lies to cover her ass and whenever something doesn't go her way, she kills them. It's this annoying "ME" complex where it has to be about them and not take into consideration the other people involved. It's a wreckless behavoir of someone who is disturbed and mental. Even at the end of the film, she ruins the life of Embeth Davidtz's character and virtually walks away scott free.

I hated it; is the film well made? Sure. I thought the acting was pretty good from Kiera Knightley and Thora Birch. Didn't care that much for Desmond Harrington's acting. I also find it funny how it's marketed around Knightley on the box art, including a quote about her, when she's probably only in the movie for fifteen minutes tops. 2/5.

Venom: 2.5/5

Everyone in town knows Ray Sawyer as the local and creepy tow truck driver in a small Louisiana town. While Eden (Agnes Bruckner) and Eric (Jonathan Jackson) are fighting one night, Ray drives by and has a head on collision with an elderly woman who practiced voodoo. While Ray proceeds to save the old woman, he opens the suitcase she had with her and is soon killed by the snakes living inside it. As soon as the police salvage Ray's corpse, it vanishes and soon a body count starts to rise quickly in the small Louisiana town.

This was a "so-so" slasher flick. The film was based on a video game that never got finished and released to the public. From what I could find on both the bonus material and searching on the net, Ray was originally going to be named Mr. Jangles after the keys that were on his belt loop. This film was also a casualty of Harvey Weinstein leaving Disney and was just dumped into a small run in theaters by Disney.

The acting was cheesy as hell and had a very stereotypical teenage slasher feel. It felt almost as if this was Scream with a supernatural entity instead of Ghost Face. Meagan Good was ok in the five minutes of screen time that she had. Agnes Bruckner was okay in the lead, but I couldn't really care that much. I give the film 2.5/5.

Video: 3.5/5

The Hole: 3.5/5

Presented in open matted in 1.78:1 instead of 2.35:1, Echo Bridge gives The Hole a decent HD presentation. I did notice a glitch in the video in the opening, Thora Birch's character is walking to a pay phone and the video distorts. Other than that, it's got a nice grainy transfer throughout. Would it have been better if it was presented in OAR? Sure. I give the transfer 3.5/5.

Venom: 3.5/5

Echo Bridge has released Venom several times on Blu-ray and every time has released it in this open matted 1.78:1 from the 2.35:1 source. Grain is pretty strong throughout; there was a shot were the image looked real dull in this morgue sequence. I also noticed that the shading covering the camera is visible in a shot when Bijou Philips's character is going around Ray's Happy Time shop. I give the presentation 3.5/5.

Audio: 4/5

Echo Bridge has given The Hole a very typical 2.0 DTS-HD MA English track and it sounds average. Venom on the other hand has a wide variety of audio tracks present; English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0, and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Why do we honestly need the English DTS-HD MA 2.0 when we have the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track? That seems like a waste of space if you ask me. I give the audio presentation on both films 4/5.

Extras: 2/5

We have no bonus material for the film The Hole; but, we do have all the extras ported over from the Disney DVD of Venom. We have a Making Of, storyboard to film comparisons, and cast auditions. The making of was only a few minutes which was ok. Storyboard comparisons shows how close everything matched up in the few scenes that were selected. And the casting auditions were so-so, especially when all of the acting was bad. I give the bonus 2/5.

Overall: 3/5

I picked this up and several others for $3.99 plus tax each during Best Buy's Echo Bridge sale. For that price, I can recommend this release. I doubt that we'll ever get these in their proper aspect ratio any time soon. Will these encodes most likely get re-used in another Blu-ray from Echo Bridge? I wouldn't be surprised, 3/5.

Two soldiers form a bond to take down the Qin empire in ancient China. Liu Bang (Leon Lai, Seven Swords) is asked by Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng) to take back his love Yuji (Liu Yufei, Forbidden Kingdom and The Assassins) to their home. Liu agrees but sees that he's being denied from raiding the Qin empire and taking the throne; this is something Liu's comrades cry foul over. Liu agrees with them and secretly go to raid the Qin empire so Liu can take the throne. Xiang Yu is angered and seeks advice from Fen Zhang (Anthony Wong, Hard Boiled and Black Mask) and learns that this will not end well.

I managed to pick up this UK Blu-ray of White Vengeance along with A Tale of Two Sisters and Evil Angel at Grooves Inc. It has an impressive cast with Anthony Wong, Liu Yufei, and Andy On appearing in it; ultimately, the film is too long. If Daniel Lee (director of Black Mask) could have shortened this by a half hour, I would probably liked it more. Also, I noticed Chinese copyright infringement with the opening studio logos; the first uses the audio from the Sony Home Entertainment credits and the second studio logo has an altered Godzilla roar. Not making it up. I give the movie 2.5/5.

Video: 4.5/5

G2 gives White Vengeance a beautiful 2.35:1 transfer. This transfer is top notch however, I did notice some sort of stutter in the image in some spots. I do not know if that was intentional or not. Cannot complain with how it looks over all. The contrast and color scheme of the overall image is stunning. I give the visual presentation a 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

G2 has only given us one audio track for the film; Mandarin DTS-HD MA 5.1. Accompanying the audio is a nice variety of subtitles; English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The audio presentation is nice and loud. Audio is demo worthy during the fighting scenes. 5/5.

Extra: 1/5

Before we get to the main menu, we have trailers for Detachment and Transit. Then when we get to the main menu, we only have a trailer for White Vengeance. Kind of a bummer that there's nothing else. 1/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

For $5, it wasn't bad. I think if I had to choose, I'd re-watch Daniel Lee's Black Mask over White Vengeance. It is nice to see Anthony Wong popping up in both of Daniel's films. However, this film is far too long, as it clocks in at 132 minutes. This disc is Region B locked, you have been warned. 3.5/5.

A couple out on the English country side are lost and stop and ask a man and his companion (Warwick Davis, Leprechaun) for directions. They are told to stay away from a place called "Grockleton". The couple don't heed the warning and go to the quiet, empty residence. Once there, they discover that sinister beings run the place and slavery and murder are a way of life.

I'm guessing that the budget is close to nothing, or all of it went to Warwick Davis for his two minutes of screen time. The biggest problem which all will catch is that it will switch from filming on location to green screen. And the green screen work is pretty bad. The acting on the main couple was ok, I've seen better. I think Chris R. Wright as the main villain was probably the best out of all the actors. The story was not that bad either, but the green screen work will stand out. 3/5.

Vanguard: 4.5/5

Max is a deaf man who lives in the forest in a post-apocalyptic 2015. Max struggles to survive on a day to day basis in the forest with zombie-like creatures called Biosyns. Jamaal is a hunter who is searching for Max and quickly finds him when Max is attacked by a Biosyn. Max and Jamaal form an alliance and try to make their way through the forest. The duo find two other survivors and soon they all realize that the Biosyns may not be the only killers in the forest.

I really enjoyed the film. The silence in the atmosphere as we follow Max is a very nice touch to the zombie genre. The color spectrum that the film has is also a very nice touch as well. Almost like how the film Hobo with a Shotgun played with different hues. The acting was very good too. I can recommend Vanguard as a must for zombie fans. 4.5/5.

Zombie Diaries: 3.5/5

The Zombie Diaries is an eighty minute horror films from the perspective of three different groups of people during various points of the zombie outbreak. In the first portion, we have a group of journalists who are going out to the English countryside to interview a farmer. While waiting on his property, the farmer is nowhere to be found and the first zombie is found inside his house. We cut to the second story which deals with a couple looking for supplies to survive. The third group is holed up in a house who try to survive day by day.

For a horror film that is not as long, it wasn't that bad. I think it would have worked better if it was eighty minutes of just one group instead of three and kept a decent span of time throughout. The acting was very good and believable. The visual effects were good on the zombies too. I give The Zombie Diaries 3.5/5.

Video:

Small Town Folk: .5/5

At the end of the film, the film states that it was filmed on Canon XL1S and Canon XL2 cameras. I worked with XL2 cameras in my film classes in Germany and they're all SD cameras. Obviously, it means that this film is upscaled. But, I think this was shot in 4:3 or 640x480 and then cropped from 4:3 to 16:9, which is 640x360. Despite the fact that this film will never look good, it's visual presentation is better than say The Zombie Chronicles. .5/5

Vanguard: 1.5/5

I don't know if this was mastered in SD or if Emylia messed up on the transfer for this film. You can tell that portions of this film were shot on celluloid and then some was shot on digital. Whenever you do see scenes that were shot on film, you can see the print damage. However, there's scenes where you can see text on the screen and it's horrible looking! I give the visual presentation for Vanguard a 1.5/5.

Zombie Diaries: 1/5

Emylia has given Zombie Diaries a 1.78:1 presentation. In the making of documentary of the film, it shows the director with an old school 4:3 television behind him with the film playing. It seems as if this film was shot in 4:3 and cropped to 16:9 for the mastering process. The presentation looks better than Small Town Folk, but not as good as Vanguard. And there is a lot of post-production tinkering with the video to simulate damage to video source. 1/5.

Audio: 5/5

Emylia has given all of the films a DTS-HD HR 5.1 track for the English audio and French dubbing in DTS-HD MA 5.1. I think all of the audio sounds good for these films. No real complaints all around. Too bad none of these films were shot in HD to match the nice audio. 5/5.

Extra: 2.5/5

Small Town Folk and Vanguard do not contain any special features as they are on one disc. Disc two which contains The Zombie Diaries and has a collection of deleted scenes and an almost hour long documentary called When the Lights Go Out. The documentary had a decent amount of input from everyone who worked on it. Does it have much of a re-watch value to it after the first time? No. The deleted scenes do not have enjoyment to them either. You can see why they are cut. I give the bonus material 2.5/5.

Overall: 3/5

I managed to trade a sealed Canadian Alliance Blu-ray of Dracula 2000 from a nice person off the Blu-ray website. Considering it was about $10, it's worth it. I don't believe Amazon France is selling this anymore and you'll have to pick up the individual Blu-rays. It's region free, however, 1080/50i will stop you from getting past the Emylia studio screen. 3/5.

While I was in the process of buying the UK Blu-ray of A Tale of Two Sisters from Grooves Inc, I stumbled across this German Blu-ray for a film called Evil Angel. I never heard of it and saw that it advertised Ving Rhames (Lilo & Stitch and Piranha 3DD) as the lead. I looked up the trailer for the film and was pretty surprised. For $10, why not?

The film deals with two storylines that collide; Ving Rhames plays agent Carruthers who is investigating murders at a crackhouse when his son is killed by a woman who is under demonic possession, Lillith. Marcus (Kristopher Shepard) is a paramedic going through a crisis as he discovers that his wife is having an affair. The death of a young girl draws Marcus into learning about religion and various other possessions as the bodies pile up. Carruthers soon realizes that Marcus is possibly next on Lillith's list and must try to save his life and soul.

I think Richard Dutcher made a great film and he's not only a good writer, director, but actor as well. Richard Dutcher plays Marcus's former partner and helps him out in the last half of the film. Now, does the film need to be over two hours? Possibly not. The pacing was decent, but, I did think some events should have happened sooner when it all hits the fan for Carruthers and Marcus. I can recommend it, 3.5/5.

Video: 4/5

Shot on film and presented in 2.35:1, WGF films gives Evil Angel a very sweet and devilish presentation. The grain levels are pretty strong throughout the film. I did spot a few specks of dirt here and there, but, you won't really see it if you're focused on the story. Contrast and colors are very stunning for an unknown film. I give the visual presentation 4/5.

Audio: 5/5

WGF has given Evil Angel two different audio presentations; English and German DTS-HD MA 5.1. The English audio sounds great in motion whereas the German dubbing has been cranked up an extra notch with the dialog. Despite that small problem with the German dubbing, which most reading this will probably not watch it with that audio option, it's pretty solid. 5/5.

Extra: 1.5/5

The ball was dropped on the extras portion of the disc. Regarding Evil Angel, there's a trailer and a slideshow gallery. We also have trailers for Terra Nova aka Island of the Damned; Alexander: Der Kreuzritter; Nobel Son; and The Burrowers. Quality on the trailers looks like they were ripped straight from Youtube. I question where the Terra Nova trailer came from as it's in English and Russian with English subtitles for the Russian dialog. 1.5/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

This disc is region all, however, 1080/50i is problematic from the start. I loaded it up on my PS3 and nothing happened at all. This film hasn't been released yet in the U.S. and from what I've read on the internet, Richard Dutcher has been trying to get this film a theatrical release. It was supposedly going to be released on Halloween 2012, but, the date came and passed. It has managed to get Blu-ray releases in Australia, France, Germany, and Taiwan. If you're in the U.S. and you can play 1080/50i material, you can get this for a good $10. Go for it. 3.5/5.

Before I start my review on both films, I have seen some bad movies. Read my previous reviews for Other Side of the Game, A Walk in My Shoes, I Spit on Your Grave 2010, etc. I think this might take the cake in terms of horrendous movies that I have ever seen. There will be spoilers, but, I don't think that many people will be seeking this Blu-ray 3D out. You have been warned.

Evil Unleashed: The Mummy (2003): .5/5

In the days of ancient Egypt, Princess Nefertiesia wants to live forever and gives herself to a demon God. Thousands of years later, in Egypt, her remains were found and the poor souls who discovered it were killed by scorpions. The remains of Nefertiesia are somehow transported to America to some school for special needs college kids. At least, that's what I think because our protagonists in this film must of had some sort of mental problems with all the alcohol consumption and stupid answers that are given in their professor's classes. When the Mummy of Princess Nefertiesia is set loose; all kinds of wacky shenanigans and murder is beset on the four kids.

If you noticed that I took a serious approach to the first part of the last paragraph and just went from smart to stupid in one sentence, that's this film in a nut shell. This is one of the worst films that I have ever sat through. I prayed for the seventy-four minutes to come fast and thankfully, it did. However, the acting is atrocious! I couldn't feel any connection to this film and felt brain cells just firing off and dying in my brain. I couldn't recommend this to anyone, .5/5.

The Zombie Chronicles (2002): .5/5

Tara is a writer who is searching for a small town. Upon driving, she hits a man who talks like a loony drunk. She agrees to give the man a ride in return to going to this small town. The old man stops her at a busted and weathered barn to discuss the history of this supposed place. He proceeds to tell the story of a retired soldier and his girlfriend who are haunted by a zombie. Then, he finally tells the story of three college kids who awake a two-hundred year old zombie cowboy and his family. Tara goes off calling the old man crazy and he disappears, making Tara wonder what is really going on.

Just as atrocious as the first film on this disc. The seventy-one minutes went at an ok pace. Other than that, boo hoo. This was crap. I will honestly say that the visual effects used on the one college girl who had her face ripped off by a zombie was pretty good. .5/5

Video: .5/5

Before I start the video portion, I do not have a 3D TV, so these reviews are based off of the 2D versions that are presented on the disc. And besides, how good can these look in 3D anyway?

P.S: I don't know if they tried to shoot these with some sort of 3D equipment at the time, there's some strange things with these transfers.

Evil Unleashed: The Mummy (2003) - .5/5

Presented with an MPEG4 AVC transfer in 1.33:1. The video quality is horrendous! I cannot distinguish whether or not if this movie was shot on VHS or miniDV or something else or an overall combination of multiple formats. The quality is all over the place, even with some of the footage looking like blown up VCD footage. .5/5

The Zombie Chronicles (2002): .5/5

Could the transfer get worse than the previous film? Yes! It can and it does with The Zombie Chronicles. I am calling it that this was shot on VHS or that this master used was a VHS tape blown up to HD. One of the things that shows off the horrendous quality is that oddly the color yellow is completely shifted to the right of the screen. Not sure if was some sort of 3D conversion that went wrong or not. .5/5.

Audio: .5/5

Both films on this disc are presented in English with a plain Dolby Digital 2.0 track. It's pretty rough by my standards and if you go through my reviews, I am pretty lean on audio. You'll hear glitching and clicks here and there. Other than that, sounds like audio from a VHS tape. You'd be surprised how the horrible audio compliments the horrible video. .5/5.

Extras: 1/5

We have trailers for the other "Grindhouse" films which this is disc is marketed as. It's funny that the titles for several of these films has the same cheesy video generated titles that you would see on porn from the 80's and 90's. Other than that, nothing else. 1/5.

Overall: 1/5

I managed to pick this up used for $6. I honestly cannot recommend this Blu-ray at all unless you like bad movies. I love a bad movie like the rest of us, but, I don't know anymore. I honestly don't. Is this the worst thing to grace Blu-ray 3D? Let's wait until I get Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape comes out to judge. 1/5.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

2:13 tells the story of a cop (writer and co-producer of the film, Mark Thompson), who is going after a serial killer who leaves a particular type of evidence to the crime scenes. At the same time, the detective is dealing with his own problems after his ex (Teri Polo, The Arrival and Meet the Parents) tries to re-connect with him. As the group gets closer to discovering the identity of the killer, they might have all ready know who it is...

If you have watched this film. does it play kind of like a Saw film? Does it also seem to have that same style of color saturation to a Saw film? Well, the film was co-produced and shot by David A. Armstrong who has worked on the first six Saw films. It appeared fairly evident as soon as the film starts. I really liked that they were able to capture that look and feel, especially since it's been a good three years since we've had a Saw film. I give the film a 4/5.

Gingerdead Man 3 (2011): 2.5/5

For what it was, a parody of numerous films ranging from Saturday Night Live, Carrie, and Silence of the Lambs; Gingerdead Man 3 is a slow paced horror film with a few laughs. Gingerdead Man 3 starts with a Silence of the Lambs parody with Gingerdead Man basically being like Hannibal Lector. Animal rights activists break in and think that all of the captive killer foods are animals. One thing leads to another and Gingerdead Man is now freed and is on the lamb. As he runs through the prison, he hears two scientists talking about a time machine that can send food back through time. He escapes and finds himself in 1976. Gingerdead Man then finds himself in between a parody of Saturday Night Live and Carrie.

The movie has a few laughs but the pacing is slow. When there is laughs, it is funny. One of the biggest flaws in the film, and slight spoilers, is that people are able to use this food time machine. Two kids finds the remote as soon as the Gingerdead Man drops it and are then sucked through time. The women were nice to look at it. I have a strong suspicion that there was a porn star present on set. She's in the background and her face is barely visible and whenever it cuts to a dance scene, whenever she's about to come into the shot, it cuts to another shot. And to point her out, she's wearing like a green jump/bodysuit; not the girl in the green dress, but suit. I give the movie a 2.5/5.

Hoboken Hollow (2005) : 2.5/5

Based on the true story of the so-called "Texas Slave Ranch" which went down in the 80's, the story deals with a group of people wrangling up hitchhikers across Texas and turning them into slaves. If you try to leave, you will be executed. In this modern day telling, Travis (Jason Connery, Alone in the Dark II) is a soldier who's lost everything after being deployed to Afghanistan. While out fighting the war, one of his best friends is killed by insurgents and returns home and soon heads out across the country after his wife leaves him. At the same time he is out, three other poor souls are taken into the ranch where they might never get out.

For what this film was, I thought it was average. If you want to watch something around the lines of this and enjoy it, go for House of 1,000 Corpses or it's sequel, The Devil's Rejects. This movie was also made around the same time C. Thomas Howell made his come back after being hospitalized and coming close to dying because of his appendix. I think for this being one of his comeback films, I think he really did good as a neutral character in the film. Michael Madsen also pops up in this for a good five minutes and his this horribly taped on mustache, but just disappears halfway through the film. And Dennis Hopper shows up for a good five minutes throughout the film as the local deputy. Hoboken Hollow tries, but at the end of the day, I give the film a 2.5/5.

Keepsake (2008): 1/5

Janine's car breaks down. She calls for a tow truck to come and get her. The man, named Earl, arrives but cannot speak because his tongue is gone. While searching for a pen in his truck, she comes across the driver's license for the real Earl and tries to make a run for it. Earl captures her and handcuffs her to a bathroom stall while a police officer comes across the empty tow truck. Earl kills the officer and takes her to a barn and keeps Janine there as his prisoner.

In my honest opinion, if I could sum this film up in one word; awful. The pacing is slow as hell and the film has these dream sequences like it's an episode of the television show Lost. And these dream sequences are pointless to the plot because of this plot twist that takes the film on a sharp left turn. I hated it. This movie was 105 minutes too long. If this would have been about 80 minutes, I would have probably liked it more. 1/5.

Killjoy 3 (2010): 3.5/5

In this third installment of the Killjoy franchise by Full Moon; Killjoy is brought back to life by a professor who bails on the ritual process. A group of college kids are house sitting for the professor when a magical mirror to Killjoy's world is brought to his household. The kids place the mirror on his wall and are soon sucked into his world of hell.

For a 76 minute horror-comedy, it works. The comedic aspects of the film worked really well for me. It's a horror film that doesn't play for the safe gags. There's blood and guts and nudity, especially with one of Killjoy's minions being just an actress, naked, and covered in paint. For a movie with a shorter time length, I give Killjoy 3 a 3.5/5.

Roman (2006): .5/5

Roman tells the story of man who is mentally unstable who falls for a girl (Kristen Bell). Once Roman (writer of the film, Lucky McKee) gets her attention, he takes her back to his place and ultimately ends up killing her. While keeping her body in his bathroom, Roman falls for another tenant in his apartment building named Eva (Nectar Rose). Eva's obsession is talking about death. Is Roman able to keep his love for Eva going with her obsession or let her go?

This film is GOD AWFUL! I do not think that I have ever sat through something that I really wanted to truly turn off. But, for reviewing this release, I had to sit through it. This and Tree of Life and Crazy/Beautiful are the worst damn movies that I have ever sat through. Lucky McKee as Roman is an uninteresting sad piece of crap that I couldn't care for. Kristen Bell must have done this movie as a favor for someone because I don't think that she would have really done something like this. Angela Bettis should stick to acting instead of directing.

Just everything about this film, I downright loathe. This film is filled with examples of filmmaking dos and don'ts. If your film has shots that go on for far too long, that's a no-no. If your shot composition has your actress with tons of dead space above their heads, that's a big no-no. When Roman is strangling Kristen Bell's character, there's so much dead space as he's killing her at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It's just atrocious. .5/5

Video:

2:13 (2008): 4/5

Shot on 35mm and presented in 1.78:1, 2:13 has a very beautiful HD presentation. Grain is present throughout with an instance or two of print damage that you will not really catch unless you have your eyes glued to the screen. There was some weird macro with the black levels present whenever the group of detectives go to Dwight Yoakam's sex shop in the film. Other than that, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same transfer on the German Blu-ray release. 4/5.

Gingerdead Man 3 (2011): 2.5/5

Considering this was shot in High Definition, Gingerdead Man 3 has an average looking transfer. Whenever looking at the bitrates, the video stays in the mid-10's in the Mbps; which means that the datarate is slightly higher than a DVD. I don't know if that's just how the transfer was handled by Full Moon whenever they handed the transfer off to Echo Bridge. Towards the end of the film in the final fifteen minutes whenever the massacre happens, there's some interlacing which occurs in a few shots that's makes the video look a little rough. I give the transfer a 2.5/5.

Hoboken Hollow (2005): 3/5

Shot in the early days of High Definition, this film must have had a nice budget. Picture is nice and clear pretty much throughout. There is an exception to this as I spotted a few shots in the film, possibly re-shoots, that looked like standard definition footage blown up to HD. This was mainly in the opening chase sequence in the film where two men escaping. You'll be able to notice the shots when it switches from HD to SD. And then there's a shot where someone is looking through a hole in wood shed where you can tell that as well looked like SD footage. Also, throughout the last half hour or so when Travis is freed and it takes place at night, there's this nice sized white vertical line on the right side of the image. It is pretty distracting and it is present until the last five minutes of the film. But, the image is nice to look at, I give the visual presentation a 3/5.

Keepsake (2008): 3.5/5

Keepsake sports a very nice high definition transfer. I wonder if Echo Bridge compressed this video transfer down any as the bitrate kept around 21 kbps throughout the film. Only problems I have is that the dream sequences have a very drab and a little too much grain to the image. There was an outdoor sequence towards the end when Janine is outside and the image looked like it could have used some sort of color correction to it. Other than that, I give the transfer a 3.5/5.

Killjoy 3 (2010): 4/5

You would think by the opening studio logo shot of Full Moon Pictures that this would have a horrible transfer, but, Full Moon proved me wrong. The transfer is pretty flawless for an HD transfer. There is a few slight things here and there with the effects shots not being completely cleaned up which brings the video transfer down. A character gets decapitated, as he stands there and falls, there's a white box that falls with the body. Other than that, I give the visual performance 4/5.

Roman (2006): .5/5

Roman is a film that will never look beautiful in Hi-Def. The film was shot with a basic DV camera and it shows. When we have the first shots of Roman who is sitting in his apartment, you see how God awful the video presentation is in HD. The flaws of blowing up a Standard Definition source to High Definition show throughout the whole entire film. When Roman is out burying parts of Kristen Bell's character in a swamp like environment, the color is vibrant, but the definition is horrid! .5/5.

Audio: 4/5

Echo Bridge has given all six of the films a nice DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track. Couldn't really find a problem with these audio presentations. I had no problems regarding turning up my sound on my television. They all sounded great. 4/5.

Extras: .5/5

Only extras included is a digital copy of all six films via Vudu. I love how Echo Bridge is pandering to Wal-Mart with all of their recent Blu-ray releases because it's printed on the artwork itself that these are "Blu-ray + Vudu Combo Pack". Maybe Wal-Mart can license out their films to Echo Bridge and we can have all of those crappy "FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT IS BACK" crap shoved onto one disc. Despicable. I give the extras a .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

You can pick this up for $8 at Wal-Mart. Considering that I am giving this set a 2.5/5, I can recommend it if you love indie horror films. 2:13 and Killjoy 3 are probably the best films in this set. If you're a Kristen Bell fan, go else where, these are not the droids that you are looking for. 2.5/5.

Visible Scars tells the story of a woman (Jillian Murray) who wants to escape her abusive boyfriend in the mountains. While staying at her uncle's cabin, the woman hears strange noises which sounds like little girls calling for their mother. Things start to spiral out of control while an undercover cop is investigating a twenty year old cold case file in which a junkie and her twin daughters went missing.

I had first hear about the film around the time that it was hitting festivals in November 2012, mainly because Tom Sizemore was involved with the film. It's a typical slasher, horror film but with a twist. This twist was something that I was not expecting. With the overall scheme of how the film plays out and how the film just kind of ends, I felt left wanting more. Maybe if they shot another twenty minutes or so to the film. I give the movie a 3/5.

A Lure: Teen Fight Club (2009): 2/5

What a title, "A Lure: Teen Fight Club". Sounds like we're getting into some real classy horror here. Film starts out with a detective, played by the writer and co-producer Jessica Sonneborn, who goes undercover into a high school in which three cheerleaders went missing. While there, the detective gets in with a clique and soon goes out to a party where sinister things are going down.

I felt that this film was pretty bad. The writing almost felt that it was a wannabe tomboy writing a film from the mind of a male perspective. Nudity left and right, which isn't a bad thing; and stereotypical high school language that most of us have heard. Acting was ok, but, the acting couldn't save the story and plot, which was a rip off of Eli Roth's Hostel. Probably the worst film in this set. 2/5.

All God's Creatures (2011): 4/5

Jon is a serial killer, taking prostitutes into his apartment and having them meet their maker. He does it almost every night. He talks about how he praises serial killer Ted Bundy while doing his ritual murders. While working his day job as a barista, Delia comes into his life and everything changes and Jon grows a heart. But when the truth comes out about both of them, will Jon make her another victim in his long list of killings or will he and Delia have a happily ever after?

For what it was, I really enjoyed it. At first, it felt like a cheap knock off of American Psycho. Jon, played by writer and co-producer Josh Folan, does give a good performance. I felt Jessica Kaye did a great job with her performance as the disturbingly broken Delia. I think this film will get replay value here and there, especially around Halloween time. I give the film a 4/5.

The Hanged Man (2008): 2.5/5

Six strangers on the internet talk about gathering for a mass suicide; only five show up to a barn on one of the stranger's property. While the group waits for the lead internet user who promised to bring the poison that would end their lives, a cop shows up and ruins their plans. The five have their sanity tested throughout the night and hope to make it until sunrise.

The film was decent; I don't know what the point of the film was? We see that these five people are somewhat not sane. When we get to the final twist at the end of the film, how does it make sense? I felt that more could have been done to make this entertaining, but, it wasn't a complete wreck. 2.5/5.

Video: 2.5/5

Visible Scars (2012): 3.5/5

Visible Scars has a decent high definition transfer. Looking up close, there is some compression and there's a shot towards the end where the image has some rough compression that is strongly visible. Considering this was shot last year, it's completely what I expect it to be. I have read that the presentation on the individual release was almost flawless, not here. I give the visual presentation on Visible Scars a 3.5/5.

A Lure: Teen Fight Club (2009): 2/5

The visual presentation for A Lure is a tough one. When the film takes place in the daylight, which is just during the first fifteen minutes, the visual presentation looks good. However, the last hour of the film which takes place at night looks atrocious. There's a shot of the antagonist and he's backlit and you can see the black being macro and it's really strong. Even when there's strong light in the fight scenes, it feels subdued. I am not entirely sure if that was a creative choice during the color correction, but, it doesn't help the film at all. 2/5.

All God's Creatures (2011): 4/5

While the presentation was not perfect. I felt that the visual presentation for All God's Creatures was the best out of this set. With the exception of a few interlacing in some shots, it's pretty good. Whenever the scenes are in the middle of the night and it's pitch black, it's still strong, at least to my eyes anyway. Color and balance is pretty strong for this film. I give it a 4/5.

The Hanged Man (2008): 1/5

For the oldest film in the group, I honestly do not believe that this was shot in high definition. Even if you're not looking closely at the image, you can tell is has this blurry look to it. Looking up closely, even at characters' facial features, it's all jagged and blocky which screams that it's a standard definition master blown up to HD. Considering that this was shot in 2007 and it's a very low budget horror film, it's possible that they didn't have access to an HD camera. I give The Hanged Man a 1/5 for it's visual presentation.

Audio: 4/5

Like the previous newer double/triple/quad Blu-ray releases by Echo Bridge that have basic Dolby Digital 2.0, we only have English DTS-HD MA 2.0 for all four films. For Visible Scars, it's individual release had both English Dolby Digital 2.0 and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. That DTS-HD MA 5.1 is not present on this disc. Echo Bridge is obviously focusing more on the video aspect of their Blu-rays. For what these audio presentations are, I feel that it's ok. I couldn't find no real complaints with it, all though it would have been nice if the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track would have been present on Visible Scars. I give the audio presentation a 4/5.

Extras: .5/5

Again, like all of these newer Echo Bridge titles, pandering to Wal-Mart. Vudu digital copies for all four films. What a waste of my time. Visible Scars does not contain any of the bonus material which was present on it's individual release. Considering how I felt about the film, I don't think I will honestly seek out the individual Blu-ray release. .5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

Considering that you can get this for under eight dollars at Wal-Mart; I feel that this is worth picking up, despite the score that I am giving it. All God's Creatures and Visible Scars are worth it in this set while The Hanged Man and A Lure could have been so much more. I award this release a 2.5/5. Get it if you like indie horror films.

A Tale of Two Sisters is a South Korean horror film made by Kim Ji-Woon (The Good, the Bad, and the Weird). While most are probably not aware of this film, they might by aware of it's 2009 remake The Uninvited starring Emily Browning. If you've seen the American remake, almost everything is the same, with the exception of a real sinister supernatural element to the film. Su-Mi (Lim Soo-Jung) and Su-Yeon (Moon Geun-Young) come home from a mental institute and return to their father and his new wife, Eun Joo (Yum Jung-Ah).

The two girls do not take too kindly to their step-mother. At the same time, the step mother begins to see some sort of apparition while having a dinner party when one of her guests has a seizure. After that, the step-mother and Su-Mi become hostile to one another until it hits the breaking point.

I felt that the Yum Jung-Ah did a much better job as the wicked step mother in this version than Elizabeth Banks did in the remake. That real feeling of hatred towards Su-Mi felt more convincing. The odd thing is that when the inevitable twist comes in the plot, there's still a good half hour left in the film where the supernatural element comes into play again. This felt jumbled and ultimately not needed, even if it's justified in the final moments in the film before the end credits start to roll. Other than that; I give the film a 4/5.

Video: 2/5

I have some bad news and I got some even worse news. Bad news is that the film was shot on 35mm in a format called VistaVision which is a very out-dated method of filming that was dropped in the late 1970's. The worse news is that this video quality is pretty bad. I believe this might have been an SD master, not a DVD master mind you, blown up to HD for this Blu-ray. It is a 1080i transfer and it more or less shows throughout the film and even at the end. The interlacing gets bad pretty much during the last half hour of the film. Also, the image is jagged pretty much in every shot.

Also, from what I guess is the problem with VistaVision filming is that the film has this horizontal wobble in a lot of the shots. This wobble oddly reminds me of how the video looked on my own film that I shot with a cheap 720p camera. It looks like this throughout. That's nothing to blame Palisades Tartan for, as a matter of fact, I don't think PT had anything to do with this master.

From what I've seen with films made in Asia, the preservation has not been kind. Look at the masters on the Jackie Chan films from Fortune Star. The review I wrote on the South Korean film Into the Mirror, which was made the same year as A Tale of Two Sisters. Even though Into the Mirror was just on DVD in my Mirrors 2 review, it's visual presentation was atrocious as well. I do not believe that a lot of Asian countries had the means to preserve films in high definition at that time in the early 2000's. And it would also cost a lot of money to go back and rescan these films in HD. For that, this might turn people away from buying this release for this fact alone, 2/5.

Audio: 5/5

Palisades Tartan has given A Tale of Two Sisters two different Korean audio tracks; DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The audio, unlike the video, is fantastic. I couldn't find no real complaints with it. Sound effects sound nice and clear. Dialogue sounds crisp and not muted or subdued. I really enjoyed the audio. 5/5.

Extras: 1.5/5

Creating a Tale of Two Sisters is a twenty-four minute behind the scenes making of the film. From the first impressesions of viewing this extra, the quality looked as if it were something ripped off of Youtube. The video 4:3 with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Technical specs aside, for what it was, it was informative of the behind the scenes process of how shots are put together and how the crew are basically moving around as the shots are being done. I like it, but, the original U.S. DVD by Palisades Tartan was two discs with lots of bonus material. None of that is present here. I give the extras portions of the film 1.5/5.

Overall: 3/5

Despite the video quality and extras aside, did anyone also notice the spelling error on the "Copytight" warning on the first screen? Even though I am giving this release a 3/5, I do not know if I can honestly recommend this U.K. Blu-ray. I think if you have all ready gotten rid of your DVD copy and you do have a region free player, I'd go for it. This title in particular went for a very high price around $30 U.S. dollars. I managed to pick this up from my favorite Swiss store Grooves Inc for $11 U.S. dollars. For that price or any lower price, go for it. 3/5.

Friday, July 5, 2013

My Neighbor Totoro debuted in Japan as a double feature with the ever-so-dismal Grave of the Fireflies. My Neighbor Totoro is the story of two girls who move out to the Japanese countryside with their father while the girls' mother is sick in the hospital. This move away from the city is to somehow make life easier for their mother. While the girls love the country, the youngest girl name Mei, discovers Totoro. A mythical being who watches over the forest. Soon the girls embark on a journey as Totoro makes the forest come to life.

One of the problems that I have with the film, is the end. To give spoilers on a twenty-five year old film, it feels as if Hayao Miyazaki and the other heads over at Studio Ghibli couldn't give the film a real solid ending. There was no real solution to the problem regarding their mother and the two girls exit this fantasy where they get off the Cat Bus and everyone in the village is relieved that Mei is safe and sound. Did the mother finally get out or did she suffer and die like the mother in Grave of the Fireflies, because there is that sort of paralell?

But, other than that, I enjoyed it. I think that if I ever do have kids, this will probably be one of the first movies that I sit down and show them. I feel that the films made by Studio Ghibli are quality products that are for the whole family. And Disney has recognized that, mostly. I feel as if this bond between Disney and Ghibli in the United States has come to an end as they passed on From Up on Poppy Hill. Will this mean that Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are doomed from getting a U.S. Blu-ray release? Time will tell; I give this film a 4/5.

Video: 5/5

Disney has given Studio Ghibli's a solid 1.85:1 video presentation in MPEG4. Considering that a lot of the older Ghibli films are sourced from master film prints as opposed from a digital source, this remastering process by Ghibli and Disney in Japan which we're getting now is breathtaking. There's a nice strong level of grain which preserves the original film look, which is something you don't get from a majority of anime these days. And the colors are nice and strong and preserved. It is truely a sight to behold. I give the presentation a 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

We have three different audio presentations of the film; Japanese, English, and French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo. The stereo tracks have been preserved to the highest quality as possible. Playing through all three tracks, it all sounds even. One problem I do kind of have, but cannot fully blame Studio Ghibli, is the loss of the original FOX/Troma dub of My Neighbor Totoro which was done at the end of the 1980's. I had managed to get my hands on the old FOX DVD of the film that only has that English dub only. Other than that, I give the film's audio presentation a 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

Disney has given a wide variety of bonus material; a storyboard version of the film as we see how it went from storyboards to the final product which we got. Several different making of segments of the film. We learn that the film had been in Miyazaki's mind since the early 1970's and took time to develope over the years until after he did his first handful of movies. One of the segments is a small, yet, indepth look at how Joe Hisashi does his composings for the Ghibli films. Finally, the Japanese trailers for the film.

While the bonus material on this Blu-ray is great, Disney gave us an extra which makes me see red... a DVD copy of the film. I love that material provided, but for the love of God, get rid of these damn DVD copies of the film. I do not want them and I phased out DVDs from my library in 2008! Here we are five years later and I now still have to look at DVD copies in my Blu-ray releases. 5/5, despite my hate towards DVD.

Overall: 5/5

Disney bent over fans on this release as we had to hand over $30 for this. Disney knows that we'll pay and they guess what, they've gotten my money on all of their Ghibli Blu-ray releases so far. It's a shame that Grave of the Fireflies is by a different studio here in the States as it would be nice to have it as a double bill like how they've released it in Japan on Blu-ray. I can recommend it, and grab it if the price ever drops. Knowing Disney, that'll never happen. 5/5.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

After my accident in March 2012, one of the first movies I watched was The Descendants. Seeing all of the beautiful shots of O'ahu, Kauai, and the Big Island alone basically made me feel that I wanted to go back to the islands. One of my goals as a filmmaker is set my roots back down in Hawaii after living there for a little over half a decade. Hawaii is a very beautiful place to live, if you have the money.

George Clooney plays a half-Hawaiian man who's overall family is in the middle of a struggle as their trust of a large plot of land is being dissolved by the island officials. With their time running out, they have to decide on who gets to buy the land. At the same time this is going on, he discovers that his wife was in a horrible accident and is now brain dead.

The movie is pretty moving; I've enjoyed Alexander Payne's previous work and I thought this one was depressing and at the same time, a breath of fresh air. We don't have one of these family movies set in like New York or L.A; we have it in Hawaii. And I think the fact that this takes place in Hawaii makes me enjoy it more. Hawaii is my home and will always be home and to see the scenery of Honolulu made me miss it even more. Clooney and everyone else gives a great performance in the film. While the depressing theme of the film might turn others away from it, I give the film a 4/5.

Video: 5/5

Fox has given the film a nice 2.35:1 and a MPEG4 transfer. Considering that this was shot on 35mm film, it's been preserved pretty good. Colors pallet was solid. To see the colors of the ocean and shots of the islands, it's amazing. The grain is kept intact too and to see it up close is pretty nice. In an age where movies being shot on film is dying, Payne gave us a nice look at life through celluloid. I give the video presentation a 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Fox has presented The Descendants with an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. Considering that this is a drama with no real action sequences, the audio presentation does it's job and doesn't feel under or overwhelming. Fox has also given the film an English audio descriptive track which is a common these days; along with French and Spanish audio dub tracks in plain Dolby Digital 5.1. With no real complaints with the audio, I give the audio presentation 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

Trailers; We Bought a Zoo and Snow Flower. Three music videos made with random footage of Hawaii. An old public domain film on the World Parade in Hawaii. And a large chunk of segments dedicated to the making of the film. A sit down interview with George Clooney and Alexander Payne talking about movies and life. And deleted scenes. Finally, a DVD and Digital Copy which I have no use for. I felt that these bonus materials are pretty interesting and are worth the time checking out, especially if you're me and you miss Hawaii. Seeing stuff like the airports being filmed and if you've never been there, the airports are shacks, except the Honolulu Int. Airport. I give the extras a 5/5.

Overall: 5/5

This is one of the best films and one of the Blu-ray releases that I have ever seen. I can recommend it to you if you want to see something different. I liked this movie so much that I have a poster of it framed in my house. Whenever I pop this movie in, it makes me miss Hawaii even more. 5/5.

A few months ago; while searching through the used Blu-ray copies at Drug Mart, I managed to score a used copy of The Pirates! Band of Misfits while another coupon deal was going on and managed to score it for $6. I had been trying to score a copy of the film during Black Friday 2012 with no luck. I believe back then, it was going for like $10 for a brand new copy, but for $6 + tax, I felt this was just right.

The film revolves around the Pirate Captain, voiced by Hugh Grant, as he tries to win the "Pirate of the Year" awards. While he is out done by three higher up pirates, the Captain gives up hope on ever winning the prize. He begins to raid every ship with no success and finally hits a ship that has Charles Darwin on it. Darwin realizes that the Pirate Captain's faithful parrot is indeed to be a dodo bird, which has been extinct for about 200 years. Darwin takes the Captain and his crew back to London where hilarity ensues and the Pirate Captain must make the choice on keeping his beloved bird or giving her up to the Queen of England.

I thought the film was pretty funny. I really liked how the pirates kept ruining Darwin's plans on taking the dodo away as they disguise themselves from girl scouts to scientists. It did feel like it dragged a bit in some spots, especially during the first half hour before the pirates land in England. After that, it felt to flow evenly and I enjoyed the humor. I give the film a 3.5/5.

Video: 5/5

Sony has presented the film in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and in 1080p with MPEG4 encode. It's nice to see an animated film in scope, seeing that most are in 1.78/85:1 is a bit boring if you ask me. The film has a bitrate that stays in the mid-20's for Mbps. It's pretty flawless, in terms of quality since it's been all done digitally. It's as close as perfection as possible. 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Sony has given the film a very nice English DTS-HD MA 5.1; along with a French dub track in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and a Spanish dub in basic Dolby Digital 5.1. For those who have hearing problems, we have an English descriptive audio track. The main English audio track is all around amazing. Like the video presentation, Sony gives the film's audio presentation something as close to perfect as possible. 5/5.

Extras: 5/5

We some pretty interesting and entertaining bonus materials; a commentary by Pete Lord; three short films; two making of segments; some games; and trailers. There's also a DVD and Ultraviolet copies provided in this release which I don't honestly care for at all. The three short films, two of which are prior stop motion works by Pete Lord are pretty entertaining. The third short is "So You Want to Be a Pirate?" which is more like a parody of a late night talk show and runs for a good twenty minutes long. Even though I thought it was good, what was the point of it?

The two making of segments run for a total of a half hour, shows a good in depth look at how this film was put together and shows how much vast detail goes into getting a stop motion film made on a studio level. And it also shows how much care went into getting us the final product. I give all these bonus materials a 5/5.

Overall: 4.5/5

Sony has given this film the release it deserves. The audio and video presentation is flawless and is quite demo worthy for those who would like to show off how good an animated film looks in high definition. Considering I picked this release up for a very low price, I'd say it's worth picking up for anywhere up to $15 to $20. I give The Pirates! Band of Misfits a 4.5/5.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

I used to watch a lot of kids movies back in the day, but, I never came across the film until last year while searching the stack of movies on VHS and DVD at the local Goodwill. And low and behold, I find an unopened Blu-ray copy of this film with a $5 price tag on it. I decided why not? I liked a lot of the Don Bluth films as a small child.

This film deals with a real adult/mature situation. We deal with a penguin named Hubie who is head-over-heels and stalker-ish-in-love with Marina and proceeds to look for the best pebble to present to her so that they can be married and live happily ever after; blah, blah, blah! Hubie is then beaten by the evil penguin/monster named Drake; and is then floating out to see and is captured by a fishing boat. Hubie and another penguin named Rocko escape and help Hubie get back to his love and to save her from Drake.

I feel that this movie isn't honestly for children at all. If I ever had children, I don't think I would expose them to this film as opposed to say something like Happy Feet or Finding Nemo. Plus, I found this to be the weakest Don Bluth production that I've seen. Such a shame. I give this film a 1/5. Not for children and not for adults either.

Video: 3/5

The print that MGM/FOX used for the transfer is in rough shape. Presented in MPEG4 and in 1.85:1, the colors can get pretty subdued at times. In the opening of the film where Hubie tells about how much he's in love with Marina; one of the birds is a nice strong yellow-ish color in one shot and when it cuts, it's a drab and almost orange color. Print damage and dirt and scratches are pretty much riddled throughout the film. No real effort for a remastering process will probably be given to this film and should we be surprised? No; 3/5.

Audio: 4/5

FOX has given the film three different audio tracks for the film on this Blu-ray; English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital. The dub tracks get flat and flatter after audio switch. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is decent and probably could do with some remastering along with the video. I give the audio presentation a 4/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

Extra features is about twenty minutes in length. We have two behind the scenes featurettes; with one regarding the voice acting and the other regarding the music as Barry Manilow did some of the songs for the film. And finally, the trailer. The extras are somewhat interesting, but, I wasn't completely satisfied with it. 2.5/5.

Overall: 2.5/5

If you a fan of Don Bluth animation, I don't even know if I can recommend this film to you. I would not know what to say if a child asked me why they are doing what they are doing. Because then you have to go into what the whole; "Where do babies come from" aspect of life. I only paid $5 for this. I don't know if it's worth it at that price. 2.5/5.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Last month, I paid sixty dollars for both Disney releases of My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle. Two quality releases by Disney and now over a month later, I purchased the Lilo and Stitch double feature release. Upon popping the disc into my PS3, I was quite horrified with how Disney properly handled this release. It's a shame.

In Lilo & Stitch, an alien escapes and crashlands on Hawaii and is soon adopted by a little girl named Lilo (voiced by Daveigh Chase, The Ring and Donnie Darko). Lilo is a troubled little girl who is on the verge of being taken away from her sister, Nani (Tia Carrere, Wayne's World and Showdown in Little Tokyo). The more Lilo tries to teach Stitch about manners, it all backfires and draws social worker Cobra Bubbles (voiced by Ving Rhames, Pulp Fiction and 2012: Zombie Apocalypse) from taking Lilo away from Nani.

I find the film to very enjoyable. I think the voice cast is very well done; and to be honest, having Daveigh Chase playing the sweet and innocent child Lilo to playing the evil and sinister child Samara in The Ring in the same year is quite a feat and shows range. Also, with Rhames as Bubbles makes it feel as if Marcellus Wallace was brought into the world of animation as in the first few scenes we have him walking around with the briefcase. And with director Chris Sanders doing the voice of Stitch is another fine tuning to the film. I give Lilo & Stitch a 5/5.

Sadly, Lilo & Stitch fell victim to the curse of the early to mid-2000's straight to video sequel craze over at Disney. This end result has given us three cheaply animated straight to video sequels from 2003 to 2006. And instead of giving us the first straight to video sequel, Stitch: the Movie; we're given the 2005 sequel, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch.

In Stitch Has a Glitch, it is discovered that Stitch was not completely finished when his creator, Jumba, was arrested by the Grand Council. Stitch now has these sort of panic attacks where his evil side comes out and he must destroy anything in his path. This comes at the time where Lilo is entering a hula festival that her mother once did in the early 1970's.

The problem that I have with the film is that it caters too much to children that the over all message is watered down. In the finale where it's supposed to be this emotional scene, is wasted because this sequel is marketed to a very younger crowd and would probably give them nightmares. The charm of the original film is lost in this sequel as well. Another strike to this film is that they recasted the voice of Lilo with Dakota Fanning which took me out of the film almost the whole time. I know that Daveigh Chase was getting older at this point, but, it was no problem for Disney to have her voice Lilo for every other incarnation of the character except for this film. Because the following year, she did the voice for Lilo in Leroy & Stitch. I give this film a 2/5.

Video: 5/5

Lilo & Stitch is presented in a 1.66:1 transfer in MPEG4 and in 1080p; Lilo & Stitch 2 is presented in 1.78:1 and in 1080p with an MPEG4 transfer. Regarding the first film; I think that this is the best that the film has ever looked. I cannot find any real complaints regarding the transfer of the film. It is amazingly done by Disney. I give Lilo & Stitch a 5/5. The sequel, only thing was that it had an odd dead grain floating at the top of the screen in the opening title sequence. Other than that, I couldn't find many other problems with it. I give it a 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Both films contain quite a few audio tracks for the film. We have both films in English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. The dub tracks included is French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish dubs in Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is pretty strong on both films. No real complaints towards it. 5/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

This is where Disney dropped the ball on this Blu-ray release. ALL OF THE BONUS MATERIAL IS ON THE DVD DISCS! Do you know how infuriating this is? Even the director's commentary for the first film is left off the Blu-ray, how do you miss that? I stopped buying DVD in 2008 and for the fact that Disney screwed the films on this release is beyond dumb. 2.5/5

Overall: 4/5

Despite the fact that Disney just threw this out there to the public with no real work put into it is a joke. This looks like something that Mill Creek would do with the Disney/Touchstone and Sony films that they release. The pop up menu is a joke too. It's only options are "Continue" and "Menus". That's it! Nothing else. No buttons to change audio or subs or chapter points.

Lilo & Stitch got an individual release in Japan and I'm considering importing it to see what that looks like. Bashing aside on the U.S. release; Disney did give us solid presentations on both films. I can recommend the release for that reason alone, but, if you're a person who craves bonus material, you're going to be disappointed. I give this release a questionable 4/5.

I like to stroll around the video rental section of my local Drug Mart. It's one of the last places that still rents out movies these days. While checking out the small stack of used Blu-rays, I found a used copy of The Watch for sale. And on top of that, there was a sale with two dollars off the price. For eight dollars, why not?

A small town in Ohio has a serious problem on their hands as a night watchmen for a Costco is killed in a gruesome fashion. Evan (Ben Stiller), is the dead man's boss and vows to catch his killer. Evan starts up a neighborhood watch and is met with an unlikely group. While out on duty, the group discovers a weapon from another world and soon after, alien life.

I thought the film was pretty funny. Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and British actor Richard Ayoade made this film hilarious. One scene where Ayoade's character describes a home invasion scenario had me laughing hard. There was also a scene where Vaughn's character, Bob, has an emotional heart-to-heart moment with Evan. It kind of made me miss whenever Vince Vaughn used to do serious movies like The Cell or The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

I think it shows that Seth Rogen did have some input on this film as he's credited as a co-writer on the script. Some moments do feel as if it was supposed to be Seth Rogen-esque with how some characters react to certain situations. Which I felt it was a good thing; as we also have Rogen doing more than just acting. One problem I did have, not spoiling the film, was that some of the jokes did tend to drag a bit. I give this film a 4.5/5.

Video: 5/5

20th Century Fox has given The Watch a very nice visual presentation. We have the film in 2.35:1, 1080p, and with an MPEG4 transfer that stays around the 30 Mbps range according to my PS3. It's a pretty solid transfer for the film. Couldn't find one real complaint with this transfer. Demo material if you ask me. I give the video presentation of The Watch a 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Surprisingly, 20th Century Fox presents the film in a wide variety of audio and subtitle tracks for the film. For the main audio presentation, we have the film in English 5.1 DTS-HD MA and it's a pretty solid throughout the film. For a rental release, Fox gives this their all. 5/5.

Extras: 0/5

This rental version of the film does not contain any bonus material as found on the general release for the public. We do not have the supposed unrated cut, but, the theatrical cut is pretty entertaining as is. Sadly, I have to give the extras a 0/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

Considering this is a rental version, I'm sure most of the public will probably just get their hands on the regular release. I can recommend the film, whether if it's both releases of the film. This film will have some replay use in my future. I give The Watch a 3.5/5.

Friday, May 31, 2013

I rarely step into the Wal-Mart in my town these days. However, I had to buy a gift card and Wal-Mart was right there. Upon grabbing the card, I decided to go back to look at their Blu-ray selection; which it actually expanded somewhat, yet was still poor as I owned a lot of them. While looking around at the $7.88 bin, I saw something strange at the bottom while digging. I pulled up this beat to hell copy of a film called, "A Walk in My Shoes". It had a price tag of $15 on it and I proceeded to take it to the scanner and it rang up $5. I decided to get it and went to the cash register.

Upon looking at the poor old woman who looked like she was 75 years old; looked like she was depressed to the point she wanted to "check out" herself. I've never seen depression like this where you could tell that someone was wanting to end it all. I pay, I leave; and I go home. I look at this Blu-ray and I dread what lies ahead of me. I pop in the Blu-ray into my PS3 and the previews begin to load up and the horrors! Oh, the horrors! We had two previews for some horribly made movies which makes The Asylum films look like movies that Spielberg made.

Constantly advertising that; "FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT IS BACK"! Really? Who cares? There was a family movie night? Most nights in my family as a child was family movie night. Except, one day, it would be "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and then the next night it would be; "The Big Lebowski". Not crap like; "The Jensen Project". Not in a million years!

With this movie; "A Walk in my Shoes", think of the movie, "Freaky Friday" sprinkled with Wal-Mart Great Value and P&G's Dawn advertisements all over the film. That's it! A one sided "Freaky Friday" with two different women somewhat switching bodies. We don't see what happens on Nancy Travis' side with the broke mother who works at a diner to try to pay the bills. It doesn't make complete sense which makes me wonder why did the producers even try. Another aspect of the film is that Randy Jackson from American Idol was a producer on this film. Really? I don't know how many times his name was placed on the packaging.

The frustrations I felt while watching this film, were legendary, even in hell. One thing that constantly annoyed me was that there was a street sign that popped up several times throughout the film. What was the name of the street sign? NE ELM ST. I wish Freddy Krueger would come in and slash everyone to pieces with his glove. It made me want to watch the four Elm Street Blu-rays that I own. Avoid this film, the Wal-Mart advertisements were making me nauseated. .5/5.

Video: 3.5/5

Presented in 1080p with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, Wal-Mart has given this transfer a decent look. Which is surprising because when I think of Wal-Mart doing something, who would have thought that they wouldn't screw this up like their Blu-ray selection at most stores throughout the country. Most scenes look crisp and clear. However, whenever we had P.O.V. shots from a skateboard, it looked like a poor resolution Go-Pro camera taped to the board. However, despite the fact the image is crisp and clear, it doesn't impress. 3.5/5.

Audio: 4/5

Someone at Wal-Mart Studios knows what Dolby Digital DTS-HD Master Audio is? Because we have a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for the English audio. Surprising. But, it's not that action packed of an audio track for the film. Then, we have a dub track in Spanish, that is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. We couldn't get that Spanish dub in DTS-HD MA 5.1? 4/5

Extras: .5/5

While this release may span across three discs, I measure this by quality. The first disc in my case was the CD soundtrack; while a soundtrack would be a more desirable choice over a DVD, this soundtrack is unimpressive. With mostly a tame rock soundtrack that has to be good for all ages as Wal-Mart doesn't sell CDs with a parental advisery! HIDE THE KIDS' EARS!!! There's cussing in 'his music, Ma! A DVD copy of the film, really, someone at Wal-Mart Studios thought to put a DVD copy in this Blu-ray combo pack?

The special feature section of the Blu-ray is creatively called; "Beyond a Walk in my Shoes". The first thing on the menu is "Meet the Stars" where you can individually go in and look at the cast interviews. Who cares about this cast? "Family Moments" which asks the more adults of the cast of what makes good family moments? "Just for Laughs" is an individual selection of clips which consists of bloopers and the cast and crew just screwing around on the set. "Beyond the Soundtrack" which consists of bios on the "talent" who had songs on the soundtrack.

"Behind the Scenes" which is more stuff from filming that you can't care for at all. And finally; "Favorite Movie Moments" which is more behind the scenes stuff which shows how the scene was done. Again...I'll take "Crap" for $2,000; Alex. Also, the cover advertises; "And More..."; well, there's nothing else. .5/5.

Overall: 2/5

To toot my own horn here on the box cover, "Widescreen Version: Presented in a 'LETTERBOX' Widescreen format preserving the 'SCOPE' aspect ratio of it's original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for Widescreen TVs." Judging from the NBC logo slapped on the back of the box art, this didn't go theatrical. My film went theatrical and is in "scope". This is a straight to television movie and is not in "scope". If this went theatrical, I'm sure there would be riots. I've seen a theatrical presentation of an Aslyum film on the big screen; Mega Python Vs Gatoroid. There's no way this went theatrical.

But, with my little rant aside, this is a bad movie. If you want to see a film with blatant product placement with Wal-Mart's "Great Value" brand splashed over the screen most of the time, have at it. This $5 could have gone to something better. Yet, I like to torture myself with these films because no one else really has reviewed this release. So, my pain for your enjoyment! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? 2/5.